1. Field of Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an image capturing method. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a fiber-type image capturing method and an apparatus of the fiber-type image capturing.
2. Description of Related Art
A probe for endoscopes, optical coherence tomography (OCT), or microscopes, needs to be small in size and preferably to be capable of remotely inspecting. Fiber optic probe is the probe with above merits.
However, almost all the conventional fiber optic probes can only conduct lateral scanning. Most fiber optic probes which are capable of forward scanning can do forward scanning only, instead of both forward and lateral scanning. However, either of these scanning approaches, forward scanning or lateral scanning, have some shortcomings. Taking the fiber optic probe of the OCT as an example, an explanation is provided below.
For a lateral-scanning fiber optic probe of the OCT system, since the user can only obtain the lateral image information rather than the forward image information, to obtain the forward image information, the user needs to further stretch the probe in enough depth and then pull it back in a spiral manner. So the user can scan the tissue spirally along with the lateral-scanning approach, to obtain some forward scanning information. But there are risks using this approach for lack of sufficient information in front of the probe during medical examination. Further, because the tip of the probe is usually still several millimeters away from the center of the reflecting surface of the OCT system, the tip of the probe requires several millimeters in advance of the scanning spot of interest, which is not always feasible in implementation.
As to the traditional forward scanning probe, it on the other hand cannot obtain the lateral image information. In need of the lateral image information, the forward scanning probe has to be pulled back and switched to the lateral scanning probe so as to go on the lateral scanning. This approach is time and money inefficient, which increase the operating cost.